LSU women's basketball coach Nikki Caldwell intrigued to face her old team

BATON ROUGE -- LSU Coach Nikki Caldwell might be more familiar with the opposing team than her own when UCLA (5-2) steps on the floor at LSU (4-3) tonight.

"It's interesting because now I'm on the flip side of scouting them," Caldwell said. "Watching their games, watching them play other teams ... they're definitely a tough team. They're going to be very hungry coming in here."

Caldwell spent three seasons at UCLA -- her first head-coaching job -- accumulating a 72-26 record and making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament twice.

Caldwell was chosen the 2010 Pac-10 Coach of the Year after her second season, when she directed the Bruins to a 25-9 record during the regular season.

"Once I first got here to LSU I had to make sure I was saying LSU and not UCLA," Caldwell said. "You've got some of the same syllables in there. ... There's definitely a conscious difference that you have to make at the beginning."

Said freshman forward Krystal Forthan: "That was a good program, and she came to another good program. It's going to be a good game."

Tonight's game represents the back end of a home-and-home series the two universities agreed to while Caldwell was at UCLA. The Tigers defeated the No. 9 Bruins 55-53 last season in Los Angeles.

To get another win against the Bruins, Caldwell said her team is going to have to play competitively for 40 minutes -- something she said her team hasn't done this season.

"We've got to be on point right out of the gates," Caldwell said. "This UCLA team has been playing very well. They've been playing at a very high competitive level."

The Bruins come into the game still running Caldwell's up-tempo brand of basketball. They are averaging 74.2 points in their five wins this season.

If the Lady Tigers want to keep the Bruins from lighting up the scoreboard at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, they will need to keep UCLA's dynamic scoring tandem in check. Junior forward Atonye Nyingifa and senior guard Rebekah Gardner are each averaging 16.6 points.

"We don't want to give them open easy looks because they'll knock them down," Caldwell said. "Those two are spearheading the attack. They're two players that can score in different ways."

In addition to providing UCLA's scoring punch, Nyingifa and Gardner have combined to tally 17.7 rebounds per game, more than LSU's top three rebounders combined.

"When you look at those two, you've got two players who are explosive on the offensive end," Caldwell said. "We've got to make sure we're aware of where they're at at all times on the floor and not miss our rebound coverage."

One way LSU can combat the offensive firepower brought by UCLA is with its own scoring weapons, specifically Forthan, a 6-foot-4 freshman.

Forthan was a force in LSU's 67-35 win against Alabama State on Sunday, scoring a career-high 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting.

While Forthan will be coming off the bench, LSU will likely turn to its leading scorers -- senior forward LaSondra Barrett (11.1 points per game) and junior guard Adrienne Webb (8.4) -- to keep pace with the Bruins.

But scoring in bunches won't help if LSU doesn't improve on a sloppy performance against Alabama State, when the Lady Tigers turned the ball over 21 times.

"We turned the ball over too many times because we were trying to force the pass," Caldwell said. "Our patience has got to be there; our ability to make the extra pass has got to be there."

With the Southeastern Conference schedule right around the corner, LSU is looking for a big non-conference win to boost its hopes of playing at home in the NCAA Tournament in March.

"We've got to make sure we're doing what we need to do on our end," Caldwell said. "Making sure we're positioning ourselves for March Madness. UCLA ... isn't only going to help us prepare for March Madness, but will help us prepare for SEC play as well."

Despite the familiarity on the other end of the court, Caldwell said she won't be feeling any sentimentality after tipoff.

"When you get in the game it doesn't matter who you're playing," she said. "On the scouting report, they're an opponent."